The leading actress in the stage adaptation of Shakespeare In Love said she tried not to compare herself with Gwyneth Paltrow’s Oscar-winning performance in the film.

Lucy Briggs-Owen, 28, said she fell in love with the 1998 film starring Paltrow and Joseph Fiennes when she was a teenager, but after being offered the role of Viola de Lesseps, Shakespeare’s love interest, she decided not to watch it again.

She said: “Paltrow is so wonderful and completely gorgeous and I don’t think anything can touch that. One shouldn’t compare and I have really tried not to and just be inspired and seduced by what she did. I was intimidated at the thought of doing this, but I feel we have managed to make it our own.

“Just as if you were playing any of the great Shakespearean roles, like Lady Macbeth or Othello, you need to forget who has done what in the past and realise it for yourself.

Screen sensation: Joseph Fiennes and Gwyneth Paltrow in the film version of Shakespeare in Love (Picture: Allstar/Cinetext/Universal)

“Never in rehearsals were the words ‘but in the movie…’ uttered, despite the fact that the template of the film is inspiring and beautiful. You have to coin it afresh.”

However, her co-star Tom Bateman, 25, admitted that he took the opposite strategy after he was offered the role.

“I did something very stupid when I first got this part, which was to watch the film again — and Joseph Fiennes is absolutely brilliant,” he said.